Chapter Three
EARLY HISTORY OF HENDRICKS FIELD
(Written by Hayden Williams in 1945)
Up to V-E day
the newspapers of the
Those
headlines tell the story of the partial fulfillment of Hendricks Field of
Sebring. Complete fulfillment of that mission will be accomplished when the Japs, like the Nazis who surrendered unconditionally, are
crushed through the aid of the Army Air Forces in which are, and will be,
thousands of Hendricks-trained pilots.
At
the controls of the Flying Fortresses that constantly bombed Hitler and his
hoodlum gang into submission were the cream of American manhood who were
trained to fly the four-engined bombers at Hendricks
Field.
And
at the controls of the Super-Fortresses blasting
It’s
a far cry from Berlin and Tokyo to June 13, 1941, when what was destined to
become Hendricks Field was just a huge prairie tract about seven miles
southeast of Sebring. On that day, the War Department announced that the tract
- sandy, palmetto-covered, marshy and nearly surrounded by lakes and creeks -
had been chosen as the site for a basic
Now
Colonel Leonard H. Rodieck of the Technical Training
Command was the project officer. Subsequently, when he became the field’s first
commanding officer, he announced that training would begin in November, when the
skies hereabouts would be filled with basic trainers.
That
announcement was based on the War Department’s plans. But plans are made to be
changed, and those in this case were no exception. November came and went, but
the skies were conspicuous by the absence of the promised basic trainers. And
with November came now Brig. General Carl B. McDaniel, one of the Air Force’s
leading authorities on Flying Fortresses, and the departure of the future
Colonel Rodieck for
At
the close of 1941, the initial construction program was completed and the
contractors were preparing to move their equipment elsewhere when an order came
to expand the building program. Then it was revealed that the yet unnamed field
would not be used for basic training. It was to become the first Combat Crew
Training School in the United States, and instead of Basic Trainers flying
around the broad prairie the B-17 Flying Fortresses would wing their way over
the land that once had been the home of wild fowl stopping off on their flight
from the north to the warmer climate of Southern Florida- the State of heron,
crane, quail, snipe, deer and rabbit.
The thought of Flying Fortresses over this section thrilled
the populace in this “hills and lakes section” of
Mid-January, 1942 came and with it an announcement from the
War Department that the AAF’s first Combat Crew
Training School (CCTS) was to be called Hendricks Field - in memory of First
Lieutenant Laird Woodruff Hendricks, a native of Ocala, Florida, and a resident
of Jacksonville, Florida, when he entered the United States Military Academy at
West Point, from which be was graduated in 1939. Lt. Hendricks, while on
temporary duty with the Air Corps, died in
At 2355 (11:55 p.m.), January 29, 1942, the first Flying
Fortress landed at Hendricks Field. At its controls was the future General
McDaniel, who is now on a combat tour in the Pacific theater after a 20 month
tour as Commanding General of the 76th Flying Training Wing. At that time the
CCTS consisted of one qualified B-17 pilot, one B-17 mechanic and one B-17
airplane. But this team trained additional pilots, and these additional pilots
brought in other B-17s, with the result that an
March 1942, saw the beginning of the program which would
train and coordinate combat crews; Pilot, Copilot, Navigator, Bombardier,
Aerial Engineer, Radio Operator, and Gunners. With the arrival of additional
B-17’s came a staff of student instructors, both flying and ground school. And
in short order the program was in full swing. There was plenty of activity at
Hendricks field.
That program continued until the latter part of 1942, during
which hundreds of combat crews were trained and dispatched to the European and
North African Theatres of Operations, where they distinguished themselves in
raids on enemy shipping, airfields and other ground installations.
Then came another change in the mission of Hendricks Field.
It was to be a specialized school for four-engine first pilots; other members
of the combat crews would be assembled at other points after training at
specialized schools for Copilots, Navigators, Bombardiers, Aerial Engineers,
Radio Operators and Gunners.
The change promptly went into effect and since late in 1942
only first pilots of Flying Fortresses have been trained at Hendricks Field.
Thousands of them have been graduated since that time and more are reporting
monthly “for transition.” Like the combat crews of the early days, the large numbers
of first pilots who followed them have also distinguished themselves at other
schools to handle the controls of the Super-Fortresses. Col. Calvin E. Peeler,
Hendricks Field’s second Director of Training and Operations, is now the
Commanding Officer of the B-29 School at Maxwell Field.
Col. Audrin R. Walker, the first
Director of Training and Operations, subsequently became Commanding Officer of
Lockbourne (
Col. Warren H. Higgins, the third Commanding Officer of
Hendricks Field, is also currently assigned to the B-29 School at Maxwell
Field. The present Commanding Officer is Col. Charles D. Farr, who wears the
Golden Wings of the Navy as well as Silver Wings of the Air Corps. He is a
returned combat veteran of the North African and China-Burma-India Theaters of
Operations.
Ideal weather conditions in this section enable Hendricks
Field to regularly keep ahead of schedule. It is known that only one day’s
flying time for students has been lost in nearly four years of operation. And
because it stays ahead of schedule, overloads from other stations, or special
students are sent to Hendricks Field for training. But despite the increase in
number of students, both the regular and special classes complete their
training on or ahead of time, so thorough is the school’s program and so
proficient is its Department of Training which is considered one of the finest
in the AAF.
Among the special students trained at Hendricks Field are a
general, the sons of many generals and other high-ranking officers. In addition
to B-17 transition, they, and the regular classes, became well grounded in
navigations meteorology, radio and engineering. The Hendricks Field ground
school was regarded as one of the leading ones in the AAF.
The flying safety record of Hendricks Field is an amazing one
and ranks among the best in the AAF, and for which its personnel has every
reason to be proud.
The success of Hendricks Field is attributed to the
cooperation that has existed since training began in March 1942, among the
members of the crews of the Flying Fortresses, the ground crew, the maintenance
men, the civilian mechanics and those “back of the line.” Cooperation is the
cardinal principle of Hendricks Field.
Hendricks Field has and is contributing its full share to the
prosecution of the second world conflict. It is hoped that it will be a
contributing factor to the keeping of the peace that follows.
AUGUST
NINETEEN FORTY FIVE
This article was
originally published for the Sebring Historical Society
in Bulletin No. 15,
October 1973, as well as in a collection
entitled, Olio, January 1979 by A. C. Altvater.
Col. Leonard H. Rodieck
Col. Charles D. Farr
Col. Warren H. Higgins
Brig. General Carl B. McDaniel
Lt. Laird Woodruff Hendricks
Retiring the flag, ca. 1942. Photos courtesy of Sebring Historical
Society.